Firefox’s private mode doesn’t just prevent its users from being tracked by trackers: it also completely shields them from advertising. Now the Hamburg advertising specialist Ad Defend would like to change this.
If you are surfing in the Private or Incognito mode, it is usually on purpose. This browser setting allows users to escape the tracking technologies of the advertising industry.
When users of Mozilla’s free browser Firefox browse in Private mode, they get as an add-on yet another feature: protection against ads. The browser blocks the display of advertisements by itself and without downloading extensions.
Firefox is relevant in Germany
Although internationally, the browser market is currently dominated by Google’s Chrome, the scene is different in Germany.
According to a recent study of the most popular browsers, Firefox ranks second with 26 percent of the market, behind Google Chrome (34 percent) and ahead of Safari (20 percent). It is therefore to be assumed that a significant number of German internet users use the Private mode of Firefox.
The ad-tech company Ad Defend seems to be bothered by this. In the opinion of CEO Dominik Reisig, Mozilla is abusing its power a bit with its advertising lockout.
Ad Defend against users and developers
Reisig is convinced that a large share of Private mode users are interested in seeing advertising.
“The advertising blockage in the Firefox browser is seen as collateral damage by users who simply wanted more security and privacy, but had to accept the blockage automatically,” he explains.
To counter this intervention from above, Reisig’s company Ad Defend has developed a technology that allows companies to play ads in Firefox’s Private mode in the ad-free room. Thus, advertisers should be able to increase the range of their own campaigns by up to five percent.
The fact that Ad Defend is operating against the will of the developers of the browser and probably also against many users that do not want to see ads does not seem to matter to the company.
